Electrokinetic soil remediation - Critical overview

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in finding new and innovative solutions for the efficient removal of contaminants from soils to solve groundwater, as well as soil, pollution. The objective of this review is to examine several alternative soil-remediating technologies, with respect to heavy metal remediation, pointing out their strengths and drawbacks and placing an emphasis on electrokinetic soil remediation technology. In addition, the review presents detailed theoretical aspects, design and operational considerations of electrokinetic soil-remediation variables, which are most important in efficient process application, as well as the advantages over other technologies and obstacles to overcome. The review discusses possibilities of removing selected heavy metal contaminants from clay and sandy soils, both saturated and unsaturated. It also gives selected efficiency rates for heavy metal removal, the dependence of these rates on soil variables, and operational conditions, as well as a cost-benefit analysis. Finally, several emerging in situ electrokinetic soil remediation technologies, such as Lasagna™, Elektro-Klean™, electrobioremediation, etc., are reviewed, and their advantages, disadvantages and possibilities in full-scale commercial applications are examined.